NEW PALESTINE — Residents of western Hancock County will be able to start visiting the new library in a matter of weeks.
Librarians and patrons alike are looking forward to the completion of the new Sugar Creek Branch of the Hancock County Public Library, with a soft opening planned for the new facility Feb. 11. The building is in the 5800 block of West U.S. 52.
With primary construction of the branch about 98 percent complete, the library board recently gave officials the go-ahead to use $160,000 in leftover funds to add another meeting room and another self-checkout kiosk to the new building, a 15,000-square-foot facility on five acres not quite a mile west of the library branch’s current location.
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Library web manager Kyle Turpin said the additional meeting room will feature a projector and speakers, as well as assisted-listening systems for people with hearing difficulties. The library board approved the purchase of an upgraded projector, speakers and other technology from Force Technology Solutions, a Greenfield-based electronics installer.
Though library officials hoped to move in as soon as January, the project is still well ahead of where leaders imagined it would be. At one point, construction wasn’t expected to begin until 2020 or 2021.
The $4.8 million building project moved ahead years early thanks to a $3.5 million gift from the estate of Ralph and Grace Rea, which the library received in 2017. The library’s board in July 2016 purchased the land from Justus Property Management for $700,000 from the library system’s rainy day fund, saying the construction wouldn’t happen any time soon.
For years, the board has weighed building a new branch or renovating the existing facility that serves Sugar Creek township; in 2010, the library made preliminary plans to move forward with a $985,000 renovation but later scrapped the effort.
The branch’s current location at 5087 W. U.S. 52 has for years proved cramped for the increasing number of patrons visiting it, causing problems with limited parking and overcrowded events. From 2012 to 2016, the library saw nearly 20,000 more visitors each year walk through its doors.
The current location contains only one small meeting room with a capacity for 36 people, forcing librarians to issue first-come, first-serve tickets for popular youth programs to prevent overcrowding.
The same programs hosted at the main library in Greenfield can draw as many as 150 people per show, library director Dave Gray said.
“A lot of people are coming in and asking about the size of the building,” said Sugar Creek librarian Cindi Faunce. “They are excited we’ll have more space.”
The new building will have a large children’s area, a designated teen section, more study and lounging areas, and large meeting and youth programming rooms.
Faunce said she and other librarians are particularly anticipating the larger space for teen reading selections and for additional seating for patrons in all sections.
“Often, people come in and just want to read a newspaper or use their laptop, and they need a table to set up,” she said. “We have such a small amount of table space in our branch currently.”
In addition to adult sections and a circulation desk, plans call for an exterior programming section as well as a patio seating area, offices, storage space and an employee break room.
The new design will meet a trend of allowing patrons more seating options, said Jeanette Sherfield, manager of the Sugar Creek branch. The library, which has eight staff members, does not anticipate a need for more workers.
About four years remain on the lease of the current Sugar Creek branch of the library, a 7,480-square-foot facility that once served as a drugstore and post office.
Library officials plan to keep the branch open and all materials available until Feb. 4, when the library will close for a week, Faunce said.
A soft opening will take place Feb. 11, but Gray said the current plan is to host a dedication for the library in the second week of April, during which National Library Week is celebrated.
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The new Sugar Creek Branch of the Hancock County Public Library will be twice as large as the current branch in New Palestine. The new branch is in the 5800 block of West U.S. 52, adjacent to the Woodland Terrace complex.
The new building will have a large children’s area, a designated teen section, more study and lounge areas, and large meeting and youth programming rooms.
The old branch is set to close from Feb. 4 to 10, with doors opening at the new facility on Feb. 11.
A dedication is planned for the second week of April 2019, during National Library Week.
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